A Red and Green Star?!

Sometimes as you gaze at the night sky, you may see colors other than white. Are these stars, satellites, or just your mind playing tricks on you?

If you see a red or green sparkle in the sky, it may just be a star – perhaps Sirius, Capella, or Arcturus.

These stars are among the top five brightest stars in the sky. When they appear low to the horizon and are shining through a thicker layer of haze, they can sometimes appear to splinter into different colors (called the scintillation effect). Thus, these normally white stars could appear red or green.

You can see Arcturus low on the northwest horizon around 10 p.m. Capella appears low in the northeast around the same time, while Sirius, the brightest of all stars, emerges in the southeast around 3 a.m.